Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The Dallas Public Library is proud to announce our partnership with the Teen Board of the Contact Crisis Center to bring you a fantastically fun day of learning to cope with bullying and stress. There will be a family resource fair and activities are being planned for all ages. We'll have storytimes, crafts, games, speakers, and performers. These teens have some really great ideas! A free lunch will be served to all participants.

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Okay, this was not the best book that I have read this year. BUT, I read the whole thing from cover to cover in less than a day and I think that really says something.

Pros: I found the storyline to be seriously interesting and entertaining. It's a dystopian book (my favorite genre) and we are wrapped in a world where in an attempt to create a generation of artificially engineered babies that are immune to cancer, something has gone terribly wrong with the next generation. When the children of this perfect generation reach a certain age, they die. 25 for boys, and 20 for girls. I know, this part sounds sort of like that movie that came out last year with Justin Timberlake but the rest of the book is totally different.

Some people in this world think that if everyone is just going to die so young, then the human race ought to just give up and die out. Other people want to continue procreating new generations of children in the hopes of someone finding a cure. Of course, this means that childhoods must be very short because girls don't have much time to bear children before they die.

In order to get the best chance of procreation in the quickest amount of time, wealthy people have turned to kidnapping pretty girls and forcing them into polygamous marriages. That is exactly what happens to the main character in this book.

The action starts right away and really never stops. I never found a boring part of the book so I never had a chance to set it down and get on with my day.

Cons: There are some loose ends that might bother some readers and the author could have done a lot more in the character development department. Some of the main characters were very well developed, but others we knew little about. Most annoying to me was how little the reader knows about the love interest by the end of the book, even though he was part of the story from very early on. Of COURSE this book is part of a trilogy so I am thinking that the author will develop the characters more in the second book.

Best book I have read this year or not, I really am looking forward to reading the next one. Book 2 in the Chemical Garden Trilogy is called FEVER and it just came out last week. I am already on the waiting list at the Dallas Public Library and am excited to see what happens next!

Lena Haloway is content in her safe, government-managed society. She
feels (mostly) relaxed about the future in which her husband and career
will be decided, and looks forward to turning 18, when she’ll be cured
of deliria, a.k.a. love. She tries not to think about her mother’s
suicide (her last words to Lena were a forbidden “I love you”) or the
supposed “Invalid” community made up of the uncured just beyond her
Portland, Maine, border. There’s no real point—she believes her
government knows how to best protect its people, and should do so at any
cost. But 95 days before her cure, Lena meets Alex, a confident and
mysterious young man who makes her heart flutter and her skin turn
red-hot. As their romance blossoms, Lena begins to doubt the intentions
of those in power, and fears that her world will turn gray should she
submit to the procedure. In this powerful and beautifully written novel,
Lauren Oliver, the bestselling author of Before I Fall, throws
readers into a tightly controlled society where options don’t exist,
and shows not only the lengths one will go for a chance at freedom, but
also the true meaning of sacrifice. --Jessica Schein

Three tales of supernatural love, each pivoting on a kiss that is no mere kiss, but an action with profound consequences for the kissers' souls:

Goblin Fruit:
In Victorian times, goblin men had only to offer young girls sumptuous
fruits to tempt them to sell their souls. But what does it take to tempt
today's savvy girls?

Spicy Little Curses Such As These:
A demon and the ambassador to Hell tussle over the soul of a beautiful
English girl in India. Matters become complicated when she falls in love
and decides to test her curse.

Hatchling:
Six days before Esme's fourteenth birthday, her left eye turns from
brown to blue. She little suspects what the change heralds, but her
small safe life begins to unravel at once. What does the beautiful,
fanged man want with her, and how is her fate connected to a mysterious
race of demons?

Today
should be one of the worst days of seventeen-year-old Hadley Sullivan's
life. She's stuck at JFK, late to her father's second wedding, which is
taking place in London and involves a soon to be step-mother that
Hadley's never even met. Then she meets the perfect boy in the airport's
cramped waiting area. His name is Oliver, he's British, and he's in
seat 18C. Hadley's in 18A.

Twists of fate and quirks of timing
play out in this thoughtful novel about family connections, second
chances and first loves. Set over a 24-hour-period, Hadley and Oliver's
story will make you believe that true love finds you when you're least
expecting it.

In The Fault in Our Stars, John Green has created a soulful
novel that tackles big subjects--life, death, love--with the perfect
blend of levity and heart-swelling emotion. Hazel is sixteen, with
terminal cancer, when she meets Augustus at her kids-with-cancer support
group. The two are kindred spirits, sharing an irreverent sense of
humor and immense charm, and watching them fall in love even as they
face universal questions of the human condition--How will I be
remembered? Does my life, and will my death, have meaning?--has a raw
honesty that is deeply moving. --Seira Wilson

And don't forget our vast Music and Movie collection at the library. Be sure to check out: